After Hillsborough voters remove him from the bench, Jared Smith seeks DeSantis nomination | Tampa Bay News | Tampa

Voters didn’t want him on the bench, so now a former judge will ask Governor Ron DeSantis for a seat in another courtroom.

In August, former Hillsborough judge Jared Smith lost re-election to judge Nancy Jacobs after he denied a 17-year-old an abortion over the grades.

This decision was overturned by an appeals court, which found that Smith abused his discretion. Now the judge has his sights set on a seat on the new Lakeland 6th District Court of Appeals.

Prior to losing his campaign, Smith also made false claims on local news reports and was linked to possible campaign law violations.

The appeals court Smith is appealing to, which will review judgments from lower courts, was approved to be established earlier this year and is expected to begin operations on January 1, 2023.

Smith is scheduled to interview 6th DCA on October 21, 2022, according to a scheduling document from the law firm GrayRobinson, which is arranging the interviews in Orlando (see the document at the bottom of this article).

“The Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) for the Sixth District Court of Appeals will meet to interview candidates in person for three vacancies on the Sixth District Court of Appeals,” GrayRobinson’s schedule reads.

In an email, Smith declined to comment on her upcoming interview, as the interview process is still ongoing.

After the interviews, which include 33 candidates from Oct. 20-21, the JNC will begin deliberations on the three judges to recommend DeSantis for nomination.

“As with other judicial vacancies, the incumbent governor will appoint candidates nominated by the Judicial Appointments Commission to fill the vacant position,” law firm Rumberger Kirk said. wrote on his site.

The law firm also pointed out that Florida’s last four governors were all Republicans and had appointed more than 70 district court judges, most of whom are still active.

“Currently Governor DeSantis is running for re-election next November,” Rumberger Kirk wrote. “Governor DeSantis will likely be eligible to make seven more DCA appointments at the end of 2022.”

Election attorney Juan-Carlos Planas confirmed to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that DeSantis would select the judges for the 6th DCA regardless of the outcome of the gubernatorial race.

Planas said incumbent justices who lose elections often go down the same path as Smith and aim for unelected positions.

But he added that Smith’s behavior as a judge makes his situation unique.

“It happens,” Planas said. “In some cases, it’s because the appointed judges are just not very good at campaigning. But in this case, it seems that this judge [Smith] deserved to lose.

Smith’s loss came after the Tampa Bay Times editorial board recommended him though he was troubled by his decision to deny a 17-year-old an abortion, in part because she had a C average. In its support for Smith, the Times gave no good reason why his opponent Jacobs was unfit for the seat.

The Times continued to support Smith – who previously presided as Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge, Group 37 – even as more troubling behavior surfaced.

During his campaign Smith has publicly apologized for a false statement he made regarding CL’s reporting surrounding controversies in its run. In July, a video surfaced showing Smith’s wife, with the judge standing next to her in a crowded church, saying that Jacobs, who is Jewish, “needs Jesus”.

A ‘woke’ attack ad targeting Jacobs also came under scrutiny – which some experts say may have violated judicial canon – leading several of Smith’s high-profile mentions to cancel their support.

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